RBC buys Shoppers Optimum portfolio from Bank of America

Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest lender by assets, agreed to buy the Shoppers Optimum credit-card portfolio from Bank of America Corp. to extend its MasterCard Inc. offerings.

Royal Bank will buy the MasterCard accounts as part of a co-branding pact with Shoppers Drug Mart Corp., Canada’s biggest pharmacy chain, the Toronto-based lender said today in a statement. The portfolio’s size and price weren’t disclosed.

Royal Bank agreed three years ago to collaborate with WestJet Airlines Ltd. to introduce the bank’s first MasterCard credit-card offering in Canada. The latest card, named RBC Shoppers Optimum MasterCard, has no annual fees and allows users to earn reward points on purchases. Royal Bank and Shoppers struck a deal in January to offer a debit card.

“This has been part of the broader relationship that RBC and Shoppers put together and announced a while ago on the debit card side,” Linda Mantia, Royal Bank’s head of credit cards and payment solutions, said in an interview. “A credit card was something we also wanted to do with them.”